derelict

adj

1. Given up by the guardian or owner; abandoned, forsaken.

   “[T]heſe affections, vvhich theſe expoſed or derelict children bear to their Mothers, have no grounds of nature or aſſiduity but civility and opinion; […]”

   “We may be pardoned our nostalgia, those of us who can remember the old days, the days before the grouping and before standardisation, when we see, as today we see so often, the derelict and abandoned buildings of what were once railway stations, for the life which they used to enjoy we lived with them. There they stand, today, as the dusk deepens about them, lampless, cold and deserted.”

2. (specifically)Given up by the guardian or owner; abandoned, forsaken.

   “There was a derelict ship on the island.”

   “An imaginative illustration showing how a space tow-boat (lower left), operating with a plasma electric rocket motor, takes a derelict satellite out of the traffic lanes in deep space.”

   “When and where did NASA's derelict satellite go down? [title]”

3. (broadly)Of property: in a poor state due to abandonment or neglect; dilapidated, neglected.

   “There is much sad evidence, too, of the spoliation and dereliction of vanished industry: tips, slag-heaps and derelict colliery-screens among which the ubiquitous, nomad mountain sheep graze unconcernedly.”

4. (figuratively)Adrift, lost.
5. (US)Negligent in performing a duty; careless.

   “The wrongs which we have suffered from Mexico are before the world, and must deeply impress every American citizen. A Government which is either unable or unwilling to redress such wrongs is derelict to its highest duties.”

noun

1. (uncountable)Property abandoned by its former guardian or owner; (countable) an item of such property.

   “But often it must have happened in a course of centuries, that plague, small-pox, cholera, the sweating-sickness, or other scourges of universal Europe and Asia, would absolutely depopulate a region no larger than an island; […] In such cases, mere strangers would oftentimes enter upon the lands as a derelict.”

2. (specifically, uncountable)Property abandoned by its former guardian or owner; (countable) an item of such property.

   “Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay; / It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May." / And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum: / Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."”

3. (countable, dated)An abandoned or forsaken person; an outcast, a waif.

   “And, think you, will the unkind ones hesitate / To try conclusions with my helplessness,— / To pounce on, misuse me, your derelict, / Helped by advantage that bereavement lends / Folks, who, while yet you lived, played tricks like these?”

   “A rather pathetic figure, the Lady Frances, a beautiful woman, still in fresh middle age, and yet, by a strange chance, the last derelict of what only twenty years ago was a goodly fleet.”

4. (broadly, countable, derogatory)A homeless or jobless person; a vagrant; also, a person who is (perceived as) negligent in their hygiene and personal affairs.

   “A very gratifying development of the work in this office has been the gradual improvement in the class and type of applicants. […] This improvement is due, in part to the arrangement with the Federal Employment office whereby the latter handles the common labor, in which group there is always a large percentage of transients, derelicts and loafers, hoboes and ne'er-do-wells.”

   “Only she must have men—understand? If they're lazy derelicts and ne'er-do-wells she'll eat 'em up. But she's waiting for real men—British to the bone— […]”

   “As they hunt, the Archers and Duval find many derelicts and ne'er-do-wells in many parts of Paris.”

   “[P]ublic charity has been permeated with judgments about the moral character of the poor. […] We see the distinction at work when victims of natural disasters and terrorist attacks are treated more generously than derelicts and drug addicts.”

5. (US, countable)A person who is negligent in performing a duty.

verb

1. (obsolete, rare, transitive)To abandon or forsake (someone or something).

   “[H]e finds a poor young fellow, a famished, sick young man, derelicted of his master, and left for dead in the march, and by the means and conduct of this wretch, David recovers the enemy, recovers the spoil, recovers his honour, and the love of his people.”

   “[F]or the public, for the redemption of the whole world, God hath (shall we say, pretermitted?) derelicted, forsaken, abandoned, his own, and only Son.”

   “Goods derelicted, that is, deſerted by the Ovvners, and caſt into the Sea, vvhich happens upon various occaſions, as coming from infected Tovvns or places, and for many other reſpects, vvill be VVreck if caſt on ſhoar aftervvards, tho' never purpoſed for Merchandiſe: (But Goods caſt over-board to lighten a Ship, are not by [Henry de] Bracton, nor from him in Sir H. Conſtable's Caſe, eſteemed Goods derelicted; vvhich is a Queſtion not thoroughly examined.)”

   “The principle of the lavv of nations is, that vvhere the protection and povver are, there is the ſubjection. If theſe perſons had abſolutely derelicted all inhabitancy in the colonies and territories of the King of France, and it appeared that there vvas neither an intention, nor a poſſibility of their returning thither again, the analogy of the caſe of the exiled Americans might have been ſet up as better argument in their favour, though even that caſe vvould not be exactly parallel.”

   “Had I not so marv'lously done / My works, ye had not had such heinous sin, / Of so damning, derelicting nature; / But now ye have no excuse, no cover.”

2. (intransitive, obsolete, rare)To neglect a duty.

   “[I]t has occurred to me, that where so momentous a point as the liberty of the subject is concerned, I should be derelicting from my duty, did I not avail myself of the assistance of His Majesty's law officer, where a doubt existed in my mind.”

   “I don't remember vowing to be calmly cheerful under the infliction of the Pottingers and others of that ilk; but I must have done it, or Arthur wouldn't look as if I was so flagrantly derelicting from my duty.”